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Flight of the Daedalus/Flight of the Daedalus
Flight of the Daedalus is a sci-fi campaign set in the near future, 2067 CE. The campaign will follow the story of a commercial mining colony ship, the Daedalus, on its journey to the exoplanet Banderan. Timeline * 2018: The James Webb telescope, Hubble's successor, is launched. * 2020: The ISS is decommissioned and de-orbited. * 2023: Mars One lands human settlers on Mars. * 2025: Contact is lost with the Voyager probes. * 2026: The first manned missions to the Kuiper belt are launched. * 2029: The first extraterrestrial mining operation brings a large amount of Helium-3 back from the moon. * 2030: Cutting-edge AI begin to genuinely pass the Turing test. * 2033: Mining operations begin in the Kuiper belt. * 2035: Lab-grown meat becomes economically viable. * 2036: Bleeding-edge artifical eye technology surpasses even the best Human vision. * 2037: The Daedalus begins its journey from Earth. * 2040: Nuclear fusion becomes an economically viable energy source. * 2042: Helium-3 mining on the Moon begins in earnest. * 2053: The genetic engineering of human babies becomes commercially available for the super-rich. * 2059: The first permanent Human colony on Mars is established. * 2064: The first antimatter engine is created. * 2067: The Daedalus reaches Banderan. The Daedalus The Daedalus is a large colony mining ship, designed to support life aboard the ship with no need of additional resources for nearly a century. It is powered entirely by a nuclear fusion generator. It contains extensive optimized farming operations as well as waste-treatment facilities in order to maximize the amount of time that crew may live aboard the ship without resupply. Over its thirty-year journey, the crew has had a number of children as instructed, producing a second generation of crew who have never known life on Earth. Design The ship's design is roughly cylindrical, which allows for rotation that produces artificial gravity near the edges of the ship, where the majority of the living quarters are. Recreational areas, laboratories, computer and mechanical systems, and small-scale storage occupy the areas of the ship farther from the edges. Large-scale storage of strip mining equipment, emergency supplies such as food and water caches, empty stores anticipating the metals extracted from Banderan, and the nuclear fusion generator that powers the ship reside in the central, gravity-free areas of the ship. Crew The crew of the Daedalus includes a number of divisions, each with a specialization and a number of tasks for which they are responsible: * The mining division is tasked with performing menial tasks such as janitorial work until the ship's arrival at Banderan, where it will be responsible for transporting, running, and maintaining the equipment that will allow resource extraction from the planet surface. * The security division is a small number of private security contractors tasked with ensuring that order reigns during the mission. * The nuclear engineering division is a handful of highly educated nuclear engineers tasked with maintaining the ship's onboard nuclear fusion generator. * The medical division includes two psychiatrists, three therapists, a neurosurgeon, two prostheticists, three surgeons, a pharmacist, five general-practice doctors, and a number of assistant personnel. * The sustainability division monitors and maintains the ship's production and consumption of resources such as food, water, and waste in order to ensure that these resources are not depleted prior to the mission's completion. * The astronautics division is responsible for maintaining the ship's course as well as overseeing external repair operations. The ship is also equipped with three distinct AI systems: * AIan monitors the status and location of mining equipment and crew who are outside of the Daedalus, and manages communication between onboard crew and mining crew. * AIice serves all members of the crew as a sort of personal assistant, performing such tasks as delivering messages and reminders. * AIana controls small-scale ship systems, such as automatic doors, appliances, and the security systems, and also monitors the conditions aboard the ship, such as oxygen levels, fusion generator output, temperature, and air pressure. Further, three space tourists have purchased places on the Daedalus, and are eager to be some of the first Humans to set foot on an exosolar planet. The Barnard's Star system Barnard's Star is a small red dwarf star located approximately 6 light-years from Earth. Three planets orbit Barnard's star: * Banderan is the closest to the star, and is a rocky, grey-blue planet whose surface is rich in rare Earth metals such as Scandium, Neodymium, Promethium, Gadolinium, and Lutetium. Its surface temperature averages a brisk -96°C during the day, and a chilly -183°C at night. It possesses a fairly thick atmosphere, which is almost entirely comprised of Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Carbon Dioxide, and water vapor. Its mass is approximately 1.34 Earth masses. It rotates once every 58 hours. This planet is the destination of the Daedalus. ** Banderan has two moons, Marise and Alari. * Epochet is the next-closest planet to the star, and is a small, dismal planet made almost completely of ice and methane. Its mass is approximately 0.126 Earth masses. * Shiramel is the farthest planet from Barnard's Star, and is a relatively small, reddish gas giant with a mass of approximately 34.7 Earth masses. It possesses a prominent ring. ** Shiramel has four moons, none of which have been given formal names.